Enfield Armed Robber Sentenced To 5 Years

March 11, 2014|By DAVID OWENS, dowens@courant.com, The Hartford Courant

HARTFORD — A former florist from Springfield was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison for a Christmas Eve 2011 armed robbery at an Enfield package store.

Nancy Gehrung, 50, pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery and admitted a violation of probation in January. She used a handgun stolen from a Willimantic police officer's private car in the robbery, but denied stealing it. She continued to insist Tuesday that she found the gun outside a restaurant.

Gehrung, of Florence, Mass., is already serving a six-year sentence in Massachusetts for armed burglaries in Northampton and Holyoke. Her Connecticut and Massachusetts sentences will run at the same time.

Moira Buckley, Gehrung's attorney, told Judge Joan K. Alexander that Gehrung's life spiraled out of control in 2011. Her business was failing debt was mounting, her mental health was deteriorating as a result of sexual abuse she suffered as a child, and her alcoholism got worse.

"Never would this be someone you would expect — this peaceful person, kind person — to pick up a gun and in multiple cases put people in harm's way," Buckley said.

Gehrung robbed Angie's Stateline Package Store on Enfield Street on Dec. 31, 2011, and police were quickly on to her.

Police in Massachusetts arrested her within days for the armed burglaries. When interviewed by Enfield police about the robbery, she confessed. She told police she robbed the Enfield package store because she was in financial trouble and was about to lose her house and business, a florist shop in Springfield.

Gehrung faced a minimum mandatory sentence of five years in prison for the armed robbery. Prosecutor Robin Krawczyk said Gehrung's victim wanted her to serve at least five years in prison.

Gehrung told the judge she realizes that her actions caused great stress for her victims and she apologized.

"I know I have robbed them of much more than money," she said. She said she has been working since she was jailed to rebuild her life.

Buckley said Gehrung's actions "gutted her soul."

Alexander noted that until 2010, Gehrung had led a law-abiding life. Further, the trauma she suffered as a child had been inadequately addressed and it was not a surprise she "fell apart," the judge said.